Curzon Street to become Ikon for Eastside

July 13, 2012

Curzon Street to become Ikon for Eastside

The former Curzon Street Station is set to become an iconic centre to Eastside again hosting art instead of welcoming rail passengers. A planning application,
2012/04817/PA, has gone in for the redevelopment of the former 1170 sq metre rail station to create a new Art Gallery.

Full planning application to convert the currently vacant CURZON STREET STATION to an art gallery. Providing gallery spaces on Ground, First & Second floors. A cafe with associated office, toilet facilities on the Ground Floor and workshop / storage facilities accommodated within the basement.External proposals include, external signage, the creation of a sculpture court and service area for deliveries and waste management.

Reproduced from the Planning Statement for application 2012/04817/PA

The Curzon Street Station was previously subject to a planning application / approval for full and listed consent in February 2004 to convert the existing building for the Royal College of Organists. The plan by the RCO for it to become its headquarters and recital hall was withdrawn due to funding problems leaving the Grade 1 building again facing an uncertain future, http://www.culture24.org.uk/places+to+go/west+midlands/birmingham/art31838.

The building was designed by Philip Hardwicke and opened in 1838, providing an identical station hall to Euston Station in London. The station hall at Euston was demolished in 1962. The station at Curzon Street served the London and Birmingham and Grand Junction Railways but was superseded by the opening of New Street Station in 1854 with it becoming a goods depot until its closure in 1968.

The IKON (Brindley Place) currently hosts many art exhibitions. It has a long established reputation as an exhibition venue and is held in high regard in culture, enabling Birmingham to participate effectively, alongside other UK cities.

It is the intention to widen the reach of the IKON by initially creating the new temporary gallery within Curzon Street Station, followed by the creation of IKON 2: Museum of Contemporary Art Modern Collection and Exhibitions Space and establishing the Museum of Photography within the Curzon Street Station to provide it with a permanent home.

Planning for the Curzon Square museum quarter is well advanced and the area is undergoing significant transformation and regeneration, including the New City Park & BCU campus currently under construction.

Reproduced from the Planning Statement for application 2012/04817/PA

Plans for the museum quarter were first launched in October last year when Culture Minister Ed Vaizey urged business leaders to invest in creative industries as part of plans to boost the economy of Greater Birmingham and Solihull, http://birminghamnewsroom.com/2011/10/culture-minister-launches-birmingham-creative-city-initiative/. The Minister for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries launched 'Creative City' a Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) project aimed at securing investment for cultural and creative activities.

They hope to get businesses to invest in a new museum quarter in Birmingham’s Eastside district through a new “Creative City” initiative. The initiative will create a fund which will mix public sector funding of the arts with loans, grants, match-funding and investments. Funds will then be allocated to creative businesses based on the potential for job creation and economic growth. http://www.artsindustry.co.uk/latest-news/brum-plan-for-cultural-economy/363

The new museum quarter proposed a new museum of photography and the development of a new contemporary art gallery. This new quarter would build on Birmingham's successful cultural sector with Birmingham the only English City outside of London with truly world class symphony orchestra, ballet company, opera company and producing theatre together with one of the oldest, and the UK's busiest theatre and museums attracting 1m visits each year with world class collections such as the largest collection of pre-Raphaelite art in the world, http://www.artsindustry.co.uk/latest-news/brum-plan-for-cultural-economy/363.

The vision for Curzon Square from the Ikon gallery are reproduced below from: http://www.ikon-gallery.co.uk/Repository/pages/197/0485f379-66d0-48f3-b585-88cce714e9b1.pdf